UK press won over on digital ID, sets about explaining why to the public

The popular press in the UK appears to have picked a side in the national debate over digital ID, falling in line with the majority public opinion and making the case for at least serious consideration of a new policy from Westminster in a series of editorials.

The Financial Times Editorial Board argued for the role of a national identity scheme in modernizing the country’s government and public services on Sunday. The article acknowledges the complexity of the task, and a need for “debate and consultation.” But the time for those actions, it says, has come.

An editorial by Sir Tony Blair in the Daily Mail last Wednesday kicked things off, arguing that digital ID could be a “once-in-a-generation disruption” for the better. It will save £2 billion a year as a return on an upfront investment of £1 billion and £100 million a year in maintenance.

Blair also runs through the familiar arguments about improved access to government services, and a case for how national IDs could help resolve the nation’s immigration problems.

The Financial Times makes several similar arguments, and suggests weaknesses in several arguments against the introduction of digital ID in the UK.

“Anecdotal evidence suggests one of the UK’s main draws is a perception that the lack of ID cards makes it easier to disappear into the grey economy than in many European counterparts,” FT’s Ed Board writes. “Requiring an e-ID to access benefits and housing could be a disincentive to undocumented migrants and people-trafficking gangs.”

Much has been learned around the world since Britain’s last ill-fated attempt to introduce national ID, which was abandoned in 2010.

“Privacy arguments have less force when most adults happily carry smartphones stuffed with apps that can track everything from how many steps they do to what colour socks they buy.”

A Monday editorial from The Times presents the issue in historical context, suggesting that arguments that may have been correct — or at least held sway — in the past no longer apply in the same way, or at all.

“In the information age, a digital identity is more commonly associated with civic participation than with state snooping.”

Countries like Estonia have shown what is possible, and public opinion has shifted dramatically.

More than half of the UK public now support digital ID, with a quarter strongly in favor and only 19 percent opposed, The Times separately reports, citing a survey by the the paper’s Crime and Justice Commission.

Fifty-three percent support the introduction of a national digital identity scheme, including six former home secretaries and two former prime ministers. The other is John Major, who unlike Blair led the Conservative Party.

Former Home Secretary Jack Straw, who held the post from 1997 to 2001, is among those who have changed their minds over the years: “What’s changed among many other things is the ubiquity of digital ID systems, and our wallets and handbags including digital ones are full of ID — so what’s the problem with the government providing one more piece of ID?”

Support is strongest amongst people who say they back the Conservative Party (68 percent), but the difference based on political affiliation is minimal. Prospective Labor voters are more likely to somewhat support digital ID than strongly support it, and the opposite is true amongst Reform UK supporters, but the aggregate total is similar (60 to 59 percent, respectively).

More than 400 comments under the article run the gamut from frustration that the realization by Britain’s political class has taken too long to legitimate questions about how such a system would work, and personal insults to demonstrations that the commenter has not read or understood the article.

Sky News has noticed that the UK is something of an outlier in not having a national ID card. An analysis of the 38 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries shows that only a half-dozen, majority-English countries Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK do not have national ID. And Australia is well on its way to introducing a national ID scheme.

The ID cards are optional in most of those countries, the report points out.

The Data (Use and Access) Bill currently before parliament would further the implementation of the Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF) and enable significantly broader use of digital ID within the UK.

Article Topics

consumer adoption  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  government services  |  national ID  |  UK